Fonality Provides Insight Into Six Scenarios That Spark a Business Communications System Upgrade

Small and Midsize Businesses Urged to Reassess Systems to Prepare for Significant Growth and Change

Jeff Valentine, Chief Marketing Officer

To prepare for these scenarios, SMBs must evaluate a solution that offers the best features and flexibility to scale in times of dramatic growth.

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) November 05, 2013

Fonality, the only provider of business phone systems and contact center solutions dedicated to serving small and midsize businesses, today offered guidance to organizations considering a business communications system upgrade. Outlining six scenarios that frequently trigger a system change, Fonality urged businesses to reassess their systems to prepare for growth and transition.

“Communications upgrades often take place in the context of a significant event in the life of a business, such as a corporate-wide relocation or a frantic push to keep up with rapid growth,” said Jeff Valentine, Chief Marketing Officer of Fonality. “To prepare for these scenarios, SMBs must evaluate a solution that offers the best features and flexibility to scale in times of dramatic growth.”

In considering an upgrade, companies must weight a variety of factors and please a range of constituencies. Corporate executives crave the chance to shave costs, while customer service managers require new features that foster stronger customer service and product support.

To help businesses navigate these decisions, Fonality outlined six scenarios that frequently spark a system change, offering guidance on how unified communications and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) can be leveraged together.

Scenario 1: Moving to a New Location
Moving creates a hard-and-fast deadline that forces companies to make tough decisions without delay. While it might be more economical to relocate a small, relatively new system, it’s usually more cost-effective to replace a larger one near the end of its depreciation schedule.

Switching to a hosted VoIP system can help cut costs and allow companies to hand off telephone tasks to an outside provider. Companies wishing to reduce the risk of downtime can choose a hybrid system combining the low cost of SIP trunk lines with the reliability of PRI connections to the public phone network.

Scenario 2: Expanding Rapidly
A new round of venture funding or an IPO often leads a young company to hire hundreds or even thousands of new employees and open new offices across the country. Fast-growing companies require simplicity, deploying a plug-and-play model for each location to streamline the process of adding new users and offices. Speed is also essential, allowing IT to quickly implement a large, globally scattered install.

Scenario 3: Standardizing Systems Across Multiple Sites
Mergers can result in a tangle of incompatible phone systems, but instead of untangling them all at once, it’s frequently more cost-effective to do it in stages over a few years. Incompatible systems can require routing calls through the corporate headquarters and incurring local-calling costs. To centralize telecom spend, companies can route calls through a standardized VoIP system, and deploy a standards-compliant technology.

Scenario 4: Addressing Failures in Aging Legacy Systems
Some companies’ phone systems are simply worn out to the point of breakdowns at the worst possible times. By using this as an opportunity to switch to standards-based VoIP, companies can experience lower costs and a rich array of Unified Communications features. To limit the overall cost of the upgrade, VoIP can be deployed only where it’s needed, to avoid having to replace more technology than necessary.

Scenario 5: Converting to VoIP
Many companies are eager to try VoIP, which promises substantial cost savings and adds a range of text, voice and video features that are impossible with legacy analog or digital systems. Before diving in, companies must consider the user experience this offers employees, and the added complexity that the support team must be able to handle. While many companies balk at VoIP providers who force them to unplug from the public network, Fonality’s solution can be designed so inbound calls use the public phone network, while outbound and in-company calls take advantage of the full range of VoIP features.

Scenario 6: Adding Web-Based Applications
VoIP lets companies integrate a vast range of web-based technologies into their telecom systems, such as a database, CRM software, soft phones, or videoconferencing. By using an integrated dashboard, such as the Fonality Heads Up Display (HUD), businesses can unify their tools, while maintaining system security.

“Fonality realizes that businesses can’t foresee the growth and change to come, so we’ve created a solution that is flexible and scalable throughout each of these scenarios,” said Valentine. “From our new bundled pricing for customers with 25 or more users to our quick installation and hybrid hosting solutions, Fonality can help businesses work smarter – not harder – throughout any growth and change that is to come.”

About Fonality

Fonality provides business phone systems and contact center solutions designed exclusively for small and midsize businesses. Fonality is the only provider that can deliver the same user experience in the cloud and on-premise, with innovative features that help small businesses save time, communicate more efficiently and reduce costs. For more information, visit http://www.fonality.com or call 877-FONALITY.